TISS talks on issues pertaining to labour law reform in India

Despite of labour laws been widely studied for almost a decade and various recommendations to re-invent/evolve labour laws in the current leg of globalization, the issues pertaining to welfare of labour and flexibility of the firms to grow in sync with market conditions for better industrial relations, persists even today. For the last six to seven years it has been argued (especially by employers) that labour laws in India are excessively pro-worker in the organized sector and this has led to serious rigidities that has resulted in adverse consequences in terms of performance of this sector as well as the operation of the labour markets. There have been recommendations by the government to reform labour laws in India by highlighting the need for flexibility in Indian labour laws that would give appropriate flexibility to the industry that is essential to compete in international markets. But, the attitude has mainly been towards skill enhancement and focus on flexible labour markets rather than assessment of proper enforcement of the laws, assessment of the situation of different categories of employers and coverage of the social protection system. This paper makes an attempt to present an overview of existing literature pertaining to this issue and brings forth some major concerns that ought to need attention before any alternate framing of labour laws…to read the full paper download Issue on Labour Law Reform in India